Unasked Questions
by Grey-Rain-Cloud
Summary: Nobody asked because everybody assumed; they were all under the impression-that Odin had not tried to verify if it was true or not-that Loki was the evil and jealous brother who wanted power. Really though, that scepter that Loki had been carrying around-you know, the one that took over your emotions?-that had to affect him in some way. Did Loki ever really want to rule? No.
1. Chapter 1

No one had asked Loki _why_ exactly he had tried to usurp the throne of Asgard and attacked Midgard. The Avengers were too disgusted with his actions to really care for his reasoning, and the All Father had simply punished him. His punishment, really, was not the cruelest it could have been—definitely not as lenient as Thor, but what was Loki to expect when he was not the _true_ son of Odin?—but that did not mean that Loki was happy about it. If they had asked why, he would not have been punished at all. That was what irked him.

Loki had taken many punishments in his life—some of them deserved, some not—so it didn't really faze him when they sewed his lips together. And how sad was that? He understood their reasoning though, because Loki was the god of lies and mischief, and with his silver tongue, he had gotten out of many bad situations; words, besides his magic, were his greatest weapon. They took away his magic too, of course, by fitting him with a collar—as if he was a _dog_—that suppressed his abilities—what they did not know was that it only blocked off a portion of his magic, but he would go along with it; if he told them, they would just rip his magic out of his body until his punishment was served. What had been a tad bit surprising—meaning Loki had to use all of his control to keep his expression neutral—was when Odin said he would be going to Midgard for his punishment, and had to stay with the ones who had defeated him; humiliated him.

It was hard for Loki to refrain from rolling his eyes. Odin thought that being in the presence of those who had bested him would teach him humility, and that the people he was in forced company with would help him see how wonderful mortals could be. It probably would have been a good lesson, if not for the fact that Loki had not really wanted to bring the Chitauri to Midgard. Sometimes, Loki thought, the All Father could be quite oblivious. Loki knew more about mortals then Odin thought; it was, after all, quite boring to read the same books in their not-nearly-big-enough library—which were mostly stories of the most_ glorious_ battles that held no interest for Loki—so what was he to do other then use his very convenient power that allowed him to travel between realms? Nobody knew of this particular talent, and Loki had never seemed fit to tell anybody—especially Thor, because then Loki would just be used as transportation on one of his _honourable_ quests—because when he would go away for hours, or even a day at a time to various realms(his most favourite being Midgard; they had books for_ everything_ there) there were no questions on his whereabouts, no quizzical looks for his mysterious absences, or confused glances when he silently slipped into dinner an hour late. Once again, nobody actually _asked_ him. He never even needed to lie if no one noticed.

So, all in all, Loki was quite pleased with his punishment that was for an unknown amount of time. Sure, he wouldn't be able to speak—what with his mouth having been _mutilated_—or use his magic in front of anybody, but he very much doubted that they would refuse him books to keep him occupied and out of their hair. They weren't fond of him after all. And even though his punishment would teach him nothing that he didn't already know—why would he want to rule a bunch of whining glory seekers; and why would he want to rule such a troublesome bunch of mortals?—at least he would get to be away from the stifling stupidity that permeated all of Asgard.

Plus, it would be very amusing to see the reactions of the Avengers when they saw their new roommate.


	2. Chapter 2

Loki was correct, naturally, about their reactions being amusing. He was particularly fond of Stark's, with his mouth flapping open and his eyes protruding disturbingly, he looked remarkably like a fish. Rogers had just looked unhappy and resigned, which was boring; Barton was angry, which was tiresome to Loki, because the only reason for his anger was the fact that he was under the impression that it had been _Loki_ who had taken over his mind, which was thoroughly irritating. Romanoff stayed neutral, and Loki was reluctantly impressed by her ability to hide her emotions; she would never be able to fool him though, because her eyes said that she was disgusted with the situation, and like a small child, wanted to stomp her feet and whine '_But that's not fair!_'. It was Banner's reaction that made Loki relax though, because all he did was shrug and sigh. He wasn't happy about the arrangement, but he wasn't acting like a fool or a child about it either; just accepting. He even went as far as to give Loki a wary smile.

They dispersed quickly, none really wanting to be in his presence, and if he had been able, Loki would have laughed; they had obviously not noticed that his mouth was sewn shut. Things like that were generally frowned upon in Midgard. Loki couldn't wait until one of them finally noticed—he was also curious as to how long it would take. The string wasn't overly noticeable; it was thin and gold and _itchy_, but if you didn't look at his mouth—which Loki noticed with amusement that they all seemed to be staring into his eyes as if trying to issue a silent challenge—then you would just think he was extremely quiet. Loki could have some fun with this.

Thor ended up being the one to give Loki a tour of Stark Tower; even if he didn't know much about it himself. In a moment of awareness that Loki thought was wonderful, Thor showed him the library. The other rooms didn't mean much after that, but Loki made sure to plot all of the rooms on the imaginary map inside his head so he wouldn't get lost—he would have to spend time with all of the Avengers after all, because that was part of his punishment, so he would need to know how to get around—and when they finally got to Loki's quarters, he was relieved. Thor had a bad habit of rambling awkwardly when uncomfortable. Loki at present, with all of his supposed evilness, made him uncomfortable. Silence did as well, so Loki felt a headache coming on from all the inane chatter.

His room was nice; there were Midgardian clothes for him to wear in the closet, all in his preferred green and black. It was plain and devoid of any warmth, with the white bed spread and white walls, but Loki didn't care much. Even back on Asgard, he had only decorated his rooms because his mother had insisted. He would spend all of his time away from his rooms besides sleep, so why did he care what they looked like? It was also convenient because if someone intruded uninvited—Thor—then there would be nothing of consequence for them to see.

It was cold though; just enough to be uncomfortable, so Loki cast a simple spell to create warmth throughout the room. This had some unexpected results. The room did heat up; it was what happened to the collar around his neck that had Loki scoffing mentally. As soon as the low powered spell was cast, the room took on a faint smell of burning, and a small string of smoke drifted up dancingly from the accursed golden collar, allowing all of Loki's magic free. It was so stunning that Loki was completely still for what felt like hours, trying to understand how the people of Asgard had ever gotten so naïve.

Did they really think him to be so weak? Not only in physical strength—Loki knew that he was looked upon in distain in that aspect—but also his magic? He was stronger than all of them! Loki would have felt insulted, but he was too busy giggling manically in his mind. This was going to be so much fun! He should get himself punished to Midgard more often. There were so many pranks he could pull now that he had all of his magic at his disposal, and there was no way to blame him for it, because all of his magic was "suppressed."

The library was still the best part of his vacation.


	3. Chapter 3

The morning came swiftly; Loki woke up early and after dressing himself in black jeans and a dark green dress shirt, he wandered out of his room and to the library. There was a wide range of book subjects—some obviously some of Stark's impulsive buys that he never got around to actually reading—from text books to teen books, and even some children's books mixed in. Loki was very relieved about this. He had been worried that all Stark would have will be science and physics reading material—and while Loki intended to read those too, he did enjoy Midgardian novels. He would read mostly history texts on his previous trips to this realm, and they would be enjoyable, but he was always drawn more to the books that would tell you a tale that was made up by the author. He thought it was fascinating how the mortals could come up with such stories without going on the actual adventure, and makes them so much more enthralling with just their words, instead of demonstrations of how you cut down this troll, or how that monster was gutted with only a dagger. Much better than the nonsense that was told on Asgard.

Loki ended up picking a children's tale about magic that had seven books, all separating a different adventure and school year, called Harry Potter. After that was done he wandered into the living area—which was disgustingly modern; Loki preferred the Victorian era for style, it was much more elegant then the sharp lines and jagged edges of now—and once he was relatively comfortable on the _un_comfortable sofa, began to read. He had gotten about a quarter of the way through it when the Avenger named Steve Rogers—Captain America—came in. The tall blond looked mildly surprised when he noticed he was the first one awake; and awkwardly stood in the door frame for a few minutes, obviously trying to find something civil to say to their new resident. It looked to be very hard work.

"Would you like some breakfast? I was just about to make some waffles, and you probably don't know how to work a stove, right? Thor was—and still is—absolutely useless in the kitchen, even though he eats half of what's in there by himself." Rogers was rambling; how cute. Loki really _really_ wanted to laugh. The mortal thought him to be as ignorant as Thor, when Loki knew perfectly well how to cook here in Midgard; he had thought that those lessons he'paid' for had been fun, and it was definitely worth getting away from the feasts on Asgard on Wednesday's for six months. Plus, the food on Midgard was so much healthier than the boar and bread and mead that seemed to be all the chefs had to offer—it was too rich for Loki to ever become accustomed to.

It had also been a secret rebellion of his, because apparently it was not fitting for an Asgardian prince to be in the kitchens with the servant's. Loki had only really bothered because it was frowned upon—borderline forbidden—for a prince of Asgard to be capable of feeding oneself; forbidden things were always the most fun. Loki sighed happily though his nose; the mortals still hadn't noticed his mouth. It was so much more fun this way.

Steve coughed. "Loki?"

Loki snapped back to attention, trying to ignore his mental evil laugh saying how blind the mortals were. He shook his head, declining Rogers's offer of food that he could not eat and continued reading. He wondered briefly if Captain America was as dumb as Thor; they were both blond, both big, and both obviously had a very strict moral code of conduct. Loki had always found it tiring to put so many restrictions on himself. He didn't want to dominate the worlds, but he also liked to have some fun, and if that fun wasn't legal then he would just have to lie and pretend and act his way out of punishment.

Eventually the other Avengers ventured out of their rooms, probably following the scent of freshly made waffles. When Thor came down, he became quite the nuisance. First he pulled Loki out of his reading, dragging him to the table where all of his hero friends were just beginning to eat. Why did he interrupt Loki just to get him to socialize? It wasn't as if Loki could actually eat the meal, let alone talk. His adoptive brother was just so oblivious, and Loki had to wonder if Thor had been dropped on his head when he was a small child, but that didn't make sense because Frigga was a wonderful mother and would never drop a child. So, Loki concluded, his brother was just abnormally slow. He sat in the chair Thor had pushed him into, feeling quite irritated. The second thing he did was, when he started eating, he ate with absolutely no manners. It was like watching an ape that had been particularly hungry and didn't care about the taste of the food that was going into its mouth was like, as long as it was edible. Loki was sure though that even an ape didn't snort like a pig.

Every one of the table's occupants tried not to look at Thor while eating their own portions, for fear of getting sick. Loki just tried to get back into reading his book, but apparently it wasn't meant to be.

"Loki," Thor said, using his chiding voice, "you know father doesn't allow you to read your books at the table. It's rude, you know, and I cannot imagine that they are that interesting, books are far from that important." Ah, how Loki had not missed the numerous hints at his own faults. Yes, Loki was not as strong as those of Asgard, but was that really his fault? He trained just as hard as his brother, but just didn't have the brute strength that Thor did. Loki was not in the mood for any of Thor's talk of Odin either, and that was where it was going, so he decided to mix things up a bit. Discreetly, of course.

Stark, who had fallen asleep at the table, was suddenly subjected to a scarily real dream. His dream contained the knowledge that every woman that he had ever slept with had his illegitimate children, and that Thor was to be his wife. Thor wore a beautiful dress for their wedding day, which had Thor already pregnant with Tony's child. Tony hadn't wanted _another_ illegitimate child, after all. Then it flashed forward to Thor giving birth; there was blood, and gore, and _umbilical cords_—

That was when Tony woke up. Screaming.

Stark immediately picked up his orange juice and threw it in Thor's face, all the while shrieking in an embarrassingly girly voice, "No! No! You _cannot _carry my children! And I'm not marrying you, so just forget about it!" Then, Tony Stark, famous playboy and womanizer, ran from the room, leaving a thunder god covered in orange juice, several stunned avengers, and an entirely too pleased god of mischief.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day Loki once again woke up early, but instead of reading, he decided to do something a little more—to the avengers—_disturbing_. He went straight to the kitchen and started cooking. He made omelettes, and bacon, and toast, with all the high-end appliances, and took great pleasure in seeing all of the jaws of the avengers drop. After all, Loki was a super evil villain; why would he be making them breakfast? Thor and Banner were the first to recover, but having very different reactions.

"Thank you, Loki." And showing a great deal of courage—the bad Frost Giant runt could have_ poisoned_ it after all—started to eat.

Thor's reaction was the _other _side of the spectrum. "But—but! Loki! We are not—it is not—you should not be cooking! You are not allowed!" Thor looked positively panicked, shifting nervously and glancing all around the room in a paranoid manner, as if worried that Odin would pop out to give reprimands. Loki smirked mentally.

SteveRogers, who had just started to sit down, looked terribly confused. "Why isn't he allowed to cook?"

"We are princes of Asgard! We are not to be mucking around the kitchen like the servants! It is unbecoming, and not allowed!" Thor burst out, but the smell of food proved to be too much, and the fact that it had been Loki that cooked the food seemed to matter less and less. He eventually sat down to eat. Barton and Romanoff seemed to be the least trusting, but when they saw that the food was _not_ poisoned, they sat down. Stark didn't seem to have a problem with the food, but was sitting as far away from Thor as possible.

When Loki sat down but did not make any move to eat, Banner looked up with furrowed brows. He opened his mouth, but before he said anything, his eyes widened in horror. He was the first one to notice that Loki's mouth was sewn shut with golden thread. Not that Loki was surprised; he had thought that it would be Bruce Banner that would see it first. He was by far the smartest one of the avengers, and the least self-absorbed. He was also quite observant. Loki put a finger to his lips in the universal sign of '_shhh!_' and Bruce shut his mouth, still looking horrified.

"Loki, you didn't eat at all yesterday; you should eat something." Steve frowned when Loki shook his head. Barton got impatient.

"Are you ever going to speak? Because the head shaking is making me want to punch you more then I already do, which is a fucking hard thing to do, considering how much I want to punch you." His fists were clenched and he had a fearsome scowl on his face. It probably would have been intimidating, but Loki had seen worse. It didn't help Barton that he was eating the omelette that Loki himself had cooked.

"What are you talking about? Loki cannot eat, or speak. It is part of his punishment." Thor evidently thought that it would be best should he step in to clear up the confusion.

"And he goes along with it? Doesn't seem like he would care much for the particulars of his punishment." Natasha Romanoff said, blank faced.

"You do not understand; he _cannot_ do those things. His mouth has been sewn shut to ensure that." Obviously Thor was not expecting the outcry that followed that explanation. While the avengers all started demanding answers and saying that what was being done was brutality , Loki just sat back and pulled out the second book of Harry Potter—which he was halfway through—and started to read. It really was a good story; even if the main character didn't have much of a personality.

"Do not worry! His magic—though he cannot use it—will sustain him!" Thor tried to placate them. It… really didn't work.


	5. Chapter 5

Pepper Potts came back a week later. That week had been filled with awkwardness between Thor and the other Avengers; they didn't understand why he thought that it was okay to sew someone's mouth shut. He had also made the mistake to say that it had happened before, so Loki was used to it. Loki was suddenly getting much more understanding—_pitying_—looks. It seemed to Loki, that they thought that after so many horrible punishments, he had cracked and went on a killing rampage. Suddenly Loki didn't seem so bad. Odin's punishment wasn't going as planned.

The second day of Miss. Potts return—the first day had been spent in… _reunion_… with Stark—while Loki had been just finishing the Epilogue of the last Harry Potter book, she had sat in a chair right across from him, and just stared. She was either waiting for some acknowledgement, or he had an admirer. No matter how good looking Loki knew he was though, with the amount of time she spent with Stark the day before, he guessed it was the former. He took his sweet time finishing, and was pleased when he heard her sigh in annoyance and start tapping her foot.

He made a big show of putting down his book and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. If he had been in use of his mouth, he would have drawled, "_Yess…?_" sarcastically. You can't have everything though.

"You threw Tony out of a window." She stated.

Loki shrugged. He sort of did—his body anyway.

"You're not going to do it again." It was not a request.

He shook his head. Honestly, he had no intention of killing any of the mortals, and now that he had strengthened his mental shields, nobody would catch him unaware again to use him for their dirty work. Not even when he was sleeping would he relinquish control. Never again would he permit himself to be a puppet, and whoever tried would meet a messy end that would _most certainly_ not be traced back to him. Just a very unfortunate—_bloody_—accident—_murder_—that had nothing to do with him.

"You're going to get me a kitten." Loki pulled himself from his gruesome daydreams, and raised both eyebrows, clearly asking if she was serious, and if she was _how_ exactly she expected him to acquire a kitten for her when he was on house arrest. "Figure it out; you have one day."

Well, then. How could he refuse?

Other than that peculiar meeting though, the only thing of note was that Bruce Banner had started looking at him funny. First Loki thought that the man had a crush on him—after all, Loki could cook, he was rather dashing, and he was quiet; he was the ideal partner for anybody with taste—but that theory was swiftly discarded when he noticed _exactly_ how Banner was looking at him. He was looking at him like he was a puzzle or some strange substance under his microscope. It was a bit off putting, to be honest.

Loki was having a wonderful time though—he loved messing with people—and if the only things that he had to be worried about were somehow getting a kitten, being dissected, and what book he was going to read next, he was pretty happy.

The book thing was concerning though.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning Loki stood over the kitchen sink holding a lighter in one hand and a slowly burning book in the other. Usually, Loki would be horrified—you should never burn books, that's what the Nazi's did and they were _bad_—but it was truly an abomination. Watching it burn gave him pleasure. He idly wondered if he was a pyromaniac as well as kleptomaniac and pathological liar. Probably, he seemed to get all the fun conditions. Seriously though, a sparkly vegetarian vampire who can read minds? _And_, he goes for the plainest most boring girl in his current high school because she smells good. Pitiful.

It deserved to be burned.

This was how the whole avengers gang—plus Pepper—found him two minutes later.

"Dude!" Stark whined dramatically. "You can't just go burning my stuff! It's not cool."

Miss Potts completely ignored him, demanding, "Where's my kitten."

Loki kneels down, and when he rises, there is a tiny orange kitten in his arms. He holds it under the arms, making sure it faces Miss Potts direction, and on cue the little thing makes the most heart-warming "_Meow!_" that was possible. Instantly, all the other avengers crowd around Pepper, who had pressed it into her chest. They were all enamoured.

Too bad it wasn't real.

Since Loki couldn't get a hold of a live kitten, he had simply made one out of magic. It was like an illusion, except more powerful because it was solid. The kitten wouldn't die either, because it wasn't alive. It would one day go '_missing'_ and would forever be lost. Really though, what did Miss Potts expect, for him to _ask_ for one of the avengers to get him a kitten? That would require _speaking_.

Plus, it would be funny to see her face when it ceased to exist.

"Brother!" Thor said happily. "You have taken the first step to your redemption!" He then gave Loki a bone grinding hug.

Now, it was previously stated that Loki was a kleptomaniac; he liked to steal. Sure, he was a Prince of Asgard and he could have anything he wanted, but it never gave him the same pleasure. When he stole something he felt a sense of accomplishment, a high of ecstasy. So his itchy fingers travelled to Thor's belt, took a golden dagger, and left a weak illusion to look like it wasn't missing. And if the dagger happened to be the _only_ one that could cut through the thread that stitched his mouth closed, so what?

Also, how on_ Earth_ is giving someone a _kitten_ the first step to redemption?

"What book were you burning?" Romanoff asked.

Loki showed her the other three books in the box set.

"Oh, Twilight." She sounded disgusted. "Can I help?"

His mouth stretched into what was probably supposed to be a smile. He was corrupting them, one by one.


End file.
